There are a number of situations in which it is desirable to change the direction of travel of articles being carried upon a chain conveyor without changing the orientation of the articles in relation to the direction of travel--i.e., the leading end of the articles remains leading. Such handling is particularly necessary where the articles are periodicals being conveyed from a bindery line to a bundling and shipping point.
It has heretofore been recognized in the conveyor art that a turntable is admirably suited to the job of receiving articles from a discharge end of one conveyor and depositing them upon a receiving end of another conveyor which is in the same plane as the first conveyor but disposed at an angle to the first conveyor. Prior art patents showing such apparatus include Mayers U.S. Pat. No. 1,524,641, Haub U.S. Pat. No. 2,362,132, Lauck et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,043,447, and Ash et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,306,490. None of those patents discloses apparatus which is suitable for moving articles such as magazines from the discharge end of a first conveyor, around a corner to a receiving end of a second conveyor.